…that may have also been some of the low points. I know one of the recommendations insisted on calling me, not emailing me, because it was inconvenient for him. I’m a big believer in taking basic directions is a sign for larger issues, and especially since I’m the person looking to pay for service, thought it to be a bit unusual. That developer, although qualified, never emailed me back though tried calling yet another time (I didn’t answer, again, basic directions). If you have the attitude that I’m working for you, you’ll lose a lot of opportunities with professionals who have their experience on hand.

The overall big factor for me was, even for a developer, a portfolio. Most of the candidates lacked a portfolio with depth or treated their portfolio as a toy showcase (which is fine, so long as you’re not using it for services). Many overstated their qualifications, and some, even though I was clear that I expected custom development (not an open source or off the shelf CMS rigged), still try to push rather than listen. Some impressive developers even had videos of how they ‘coded’ the site, which I almost went for just for that!

In the end, I opted for a python/django environment since no PHP developer could match their skill (including the RoR developers who pitched me).

I was out of the discussion about referral key, and back to my previous discussion on a search for an employee – apologies for the juggling conversation there, twitter will train you to do that.

The only comparison of your site I was making was:
“…seems to lie between linkedin and twitter to me…”

…and I stand by that idea & my criticism of the quality of the development. I agree very much about the power of the referral and networking in our community (it’s done quite well and landed me large names) – but the means of doing it is just as important to me, and I wouldn’t put my name on a site that I don’t think bares the same quality that I hold my reputation to. How can I trust you can do complicated relationships properly, if basic html can’t be managed:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.referralkey.com%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0

I do home you make me eat my words over time:) – and my criticism is simply to be honest on a business perspective, not meant to be personal. You have a good idea to me, It just wouldn’t have passed my desk and launched without the polish, and polish shows me the attention to the details.

I am a colleague of Chris’s, and good friends with the Referral Key group. He showed me your critique of the site. Although your harsh feedback is appreciated and you do sound like a sharp guy; I’m not quite sure you understand Referral Key.

Krop looks like a great site yet, it serves a completely different purpose than Referral Key. (That’s like suggesting Amazon to someone looking for an alternative to Wikipedia)

After going through Krop, it’s clear that its purpose is to connect programmers with positions at mid- to large sized businesses. I can think of several other sites that are at least relatively similar. (http://www.getafreelancer.com/), (http://www.craigslist.com/, http://www.monster.com/)

That couldn’t be further from what Referral Key does.

“Business to business” referrals are the life line for the majority of small business owners (including many programmers like me).

You can actually build an extremely successful practice based on your reputation alone. For instance, my longtime accountant Diane does very good work and I trust her. When I had mentioned that I was looking to have some legal work done for my son’s charity group, she suggested her trusted attorney, Joshua.

Now everyone’s reputation is strengthened and as a group, we have competitive advantage over someone who just posts and answer job ads in a newspaper, phone book or even online. Do quality work and exchange referrals with 30 people who trust you and you could imagine you’re reputation will spread very fast.

If anything, http://www.bni.com/ would be the non-digital version of what we do.

Referral Key is a robust tool with many unique and powerful features such as the ability to run a promotion campaign within your current client base.

A referral from Craigslist, no matter how “targeted”, is not a qualified referral.

We appreciate your harsh criticism of the schematics of the site. Fortunately, our members and the community are very pleased with the site thus far. To name just a few:

http://www.referralkey.com/files/MIT-ES_news_item.pdf

http://mashable.com/2008/10/12/referralkey/

I suggest you take a look at the site someday. =)

best,
Boris

I specifically wouldn’t use it for Development or Design referrals; the site runs on a table based layout, doesn’t have a doctype, and has more validation errors. It looks like a Microsoft 2000 website, and if I’m already turned away by those things, I don’t think I’d find an experienced developer or designer that would use it.

I’m going to be even more specific and try http://www.krop.com next if I need too…

This was an experiment for us as well. I’m quite picky on my tech requirements, and I’ve been finding in the past just paying for a Craigslist post or hitting Linkedin (that site is not on my love list anymore) is not giving me the real, targeted referrals I need. So this time around, I trolled on things like 37 signals gig board, and posted on both Facebook and Twitter.

Surprisingly, you and another person where the only people that recommended someone. The other tweeter did make reference that they didn’t know them personally, and would be interested in my feedback so he knows for future reference (which is a nice way to get around not knowing the individual).

The end results are still up in the air: Brian’s traveling right now and wanted to talk on the phone – but I run the Advertising/Marketing/Design/Development/IT for 12 sub companies, and Tuesdays are almost exclusively meetings. I asked that when he’s settled or returned, we can talk.

Nathan we chatted briefly online, and will most likely again soon. I am reviewing his portfolio now.

Which leads to some of the problems with trying this on Twitter: 140 characters in multiple posts can leave out specifics. In my case, I need a developer with real world application development, most likely in a mvc modeled environment, with strong understanding of modern semantic/tableless/accessibility standards – and with a portfolio that shows this.

Surprisingly, that’s another issue I’m finding – no portfolio. Maybe it’s more of an artist thing, but I think even developers should have a strong portfolio including specifics about their knowledge. Regardless of the economy, we’re a large company quite willing to pay premium for talent… if we can find that talent. For someone like me that can also code, it’s doubly important so I can separate the real talent (but I imagine, that’s an overall HR problem).

Now, I’ve actually opened it up to Ruby on Rails or Python/Django developers, and I’m starting to note that we’re willing to pay $100 an hour for their time, as well as above for someone with the experience and talent. I’ll post up the results for you if they come about:)